Think about the miles of power lines criss-crossing our modern world. Inspecting them all for signs of wear and tear can be a complicated and expensive process. That's why a group of crafty UCSD engineers built SkySweeper, an elegant little 3D printed robot that could make power line inspection a lot simpler.

Across the Western U.S., yearly areas of snowpack are decreasing, and researchers are trying to figure out what that means for everything that relies on the snowmelt -- from farms to power plants to a little creature known as the Cascades frog.

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to let oil companies continue to dump polluted wastewater on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. This includes chemicals that companies add to the wells during hydraulic fracturing, an engineering practice that makes wells produce more oil.

The house of kidnapper and rapist Ariel Castro, the man who was sentenced to life in prison plus 1,000 years last week, has been razed. Michelle Knight, one of the three women for whom the house became a prison for nearly a decade, was on hand for the demolition Wednesday.

Why buy 1 pound of hamburger meat from a local farmer when you can buy 5 pounds -- plus another 20 pounds of stew meat, steaks and roast -- for as little as half the price of what it all goes for at the market?

The ongoing immigration debate in Congress often spotlights the job market for people living in the U.S. illegally. Not long ago, that market included one of the country's top organic herb farms -- until an immigration bust forced the business, based in Washington state, to clean up its payroll.

A 25-year-old active Marine reservist based at Camp Pendleton died of head injuries Tuesday suffered in a fight outside a Pasadena restaurant. Two men and one woman have been arrested in connection with the assault led to the death of Joshua Martinez.

The Netflix hit Orange Is the New Black has won over critics and viewers alike this summer. The original series follows a diverse cast of characters in a women's prison in upstate New York. One of the breakout stars is Laverne Cox. Her character, Sophia, is a transgender woman who stands up for herself among prison officials and other inmates.

Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg has decided he won't be the one to helm the upcoming biopic of "American Sniper" Chris Kyle. Actor Bradley Cooper, who owns the rights to the book written by Kyle, is still slated to star as the fallen former Navy SEAL.

Freddie Mac racked up a $5 billion profit in the second quarter, the mortgage backer said in its quarterly report Wednesday. The earnings are the second-highest in the history of Freddie Mac, which has now extended its streak of profitable quarters to seven in a row.

LAKESIDE, Calif. (AP) -- A man suspected of abducting a 16-year-old girl told her he had a crush on her and would date her if they were the same age, a friend of the girl said Wednesday as police searched for the man who is also wanted in the death of the girl's mother and possibly her 8-year-old brother.